England, France in W.Cup wins | Bangkok Post: breakingnews

France, England and Wales all notched up vital wins in the World Cup on Sunday, but all were given scares by so-called second tier teams.

Similar to their opener against Japan, the French found it hard to shake off underdogs Canada, who were hanging on within a converted try after an hour of play.Full-back Damien Traille then grabbed a breakaway try giving the French some breathing space and a late brace from Vincent Clerc made it 46-19 in the end, very like the 47-21 scoreline they managed against Japan.Marc Lievremont's men will now prepare for the showdown with the All Blacks in Auckland next Saturday and if they lose that, they will likely go up against old World Cup foes England in the quarter-finals.Martin Johnson's men stayed on course to top Pool B, but they were on the back foot for much of the first half against a gutsy Georgian team in Dunedin before pulling away in the second period to win 41-10.Shontayne Hape and Chris Ashton scored two tries apiece with Delon Armitage and Manu Tuilagi also touching down.Victory was what England needed after the furore surrounding their night out in Queenstown last Sunday, which led to allegations Mike Tindall, England's skipper against the Pumas, had behaved improperly in a bar.But Georgia can take great credit from the match having had to cope with just a four-day turnaround after a 15-6 defeat by Scotland on Wednesday."We made it hard for ourselves and gave away a lot of penalties, but we came away with six tries," England skipper Lewis Moody said."Fair play to Georgia, they played a fantastic game. We got some things to work on. But you can only win every game that is put in front of you."Johnson also paid credit to the grit of the Georgians, but he said he was unhappy with his "sloppy" side."If we are happy with those standards we will go home early," said the coach who is, bidding to lead England to a third successive World...